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Yuritci Martinez

Professor Nolen

English 1302

September 3, 2022

Dogs can decrease stress and anxiety from university students

Introduction

Students are presented with new surroundings, as well as the social, academic, and

emotional obstacles that are a part of university life. It can be a very stressful time for them and

mostly for the freshmen students. Therefore, first-year students are more likely to encounter

challenges as they learn to adjust to and manage their new obligations. For students who are

struggling with psychological conditions like anxiety and depression, these new responsibilities

could be much more challenging. An article stated that these relationships between depression,

anxiety, and stress in university students are supported by two national studies. In the US,

“18.1% of students had received a diagnosis or treatment for depression, and 22.1% of students

had received a diagnosis or treatment for an anxiety condition, according to the College Health

Assessment Survey (American College Health Association, 2018). Therefore,50.2% of the

students said that handling academics was extremely tough, and 33.2% said that stress was the

main cause of their poor performance on a test, project, or course” (Assumpcao,pg..1). College

students who spend time with a therapy dog may find it easier to study or complete their

schoolwork. Prior to a difficult exam, college students can spend time with their dog or a therapy

dog, giving them the opportunity to calm down.

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This research will observe and document how a dog will help relief stress and anxiety in

college students. It is important to examine if a dog helps university students relieve stress and

anxiety by observing how much time they spend concentrating and the tasks they do during that

time. As states in this article, “Pet therapy as a therapeutic phenomenon has grown rapidly in

recent decades with animal-assisted interventions being implemented across a range of

healthcare environments” (Wood Emily, pg.1). The purpose of this study is to understand the

impact a dog can have in relieving stress and anxiety in a university student. These pets have the

potential to be research participants in addition to being a man's greatest friends.

Stress/Anxiety

Although both stress and anxiety are emotional reactions, stress is often brought on by an

outside trigger (American Psychological Association,2019). The reason may be as simple as

missing class, not turning in homework on time, or failing an exam, or it may be complex, such

as having to study for five classes or missing a deadline for several homework assignments or

tests. “People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms, such as irritability, anger,

fatigue, muscle discomfort, and digestive troubles” (American Psychological Association,2019).

The anxiety is described as overwhelming, ongoing worries that remain even in the absence of a

stressor (Marks,2021). Anxiety and stress have many similar side effects, including sweating,

shaking, difficulty concentrating, feeling nervous, insomnia, etc. As stated in the article “High

prevalence rates of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in college/university are a growing

concern in the literature” (Assumpcao,pg,.1).

Research Question

Can a dog help relief/ decrease stress and anxiety in a university student?

Methods/Explanation
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A 4-day research experiment was conducted to see how a dog helps college students to

relief/decrease stress and anxiety. The experiment was conducted over the course of four days

starting Saturday through Tuesday performing different duties related with college. Each day

different college duties were completed. The experiment included a dog (Yorkshire Terrier) and

a participant. The participant was a female 19-year-old student. The college related duties

included a homework section, studying section, and test section. A 4-day schedule/planner for

each day and a notebook were used. Out of the four days, the dog was present for two days next

to the participant and two days absent during her study, homework, or test section.

In total, four trials were done one for each day in which the student performed different

activities for each day. The first day, the participant studied for a music class test, and which

took the test on Saturday, while being accompanied by the dog. The second day, the participant

was doing homework for History class without the dog. The third day, the participant completed

homework for English class in presence of the dog. The fourth day, the participant studied and

completed the test for PSYC class without the dog. The first and third day, it was determined if

the dog helped the student to distress and to not be anxious, while doing homework and studying

for the test. It was also studied if the participant can concentrate while studying and doing

homework with the dog’s companionship. Then the second day and fourth day, the participant

studied and did homework without the dog to determine how stressed and anxious the participant

was. It was also determined if the student was able to concentrate and have a good performance

in the test and homework without the dog’s presence. This was determined by the amount of

tasks (Tests, study time, and homework) completed by the student and the minutes it took the

student to complete them.

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Day 1: Day 2: Day 4:

Day 3:
Student needed to Student needed to Student needs to
Student needs to do
study and complete do history class study and do the
english class
Music class test with homework without psych class test
homework with dog.
dog's presence. dog. without dog.

Result

The result of this research was based on the examination of the data that helped the

researcher test, the study's hypotheses, which suggested that the student/participant who

physically interacted with the dog experienced reduced levels of tension, stress, and anxiety. The

data collected in this research showed that on the days that the student/participant was with the

dog, while studying and doing homework the student’s stress and anxiety were reduced. The first

day the student studied and took a test in presence of the dog. The student’s anxiety and stress

decreased therefore the student was able to concentrate more. She had 25 minutes of

concentrated studying and 25 minutes to complete a test. The second day the student did

homework without the dog and wasn’t able to concentrate for a long period of time. She was

only able to concentrate for 15 minutes. The third day the student did homework with the dog

and a big difference was noted because her anxiety and stress decreased thus increasing her

concentration time. She was able to concentrate more than the first day with a total of about 35

minutes to complete homework. The last day of the research, the student was only able to fully

concentrate and study for 10 minutes in absence of the dog. While completing a test without the

dog, she was only able to concentrate for 15 minutes before getting distracted. As this article

stated, “studies have found university students report lower levels of anxiety and loneliness

following engagement with a therapy dog” (Daltry & Mehr,2015; Stewart,2014, pg. 2).
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Student anxiety and stress graph Chart

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Day 1 w/Dog Day 2 Day 3 w/Dog Day 4

Study Test Homework

Discussion

The goal of the study was to ascertain whether associating with a dog would have a

beneficial effect on a college student who was stressed and anxious. According to this study,

when the student engaged with the dog for two days out of four, their productivity time

significantly increased, and their levels of stress and anxiety were drastically reduced. The

limitations to the experiment were the fact that it wasn’t performed in a totally controlled

environment since the effect of time of day, different tasks completed for different courses, and

the time to perform those tasks were not the same. Regardless, the findings to this research do

agree with other research as quoted throughout this paper that dogs do help students to have a

decrease of stress and anxiety and an increase in productivity. One of the experiments I would

perform next would be to determine if a dog’s presence does more good than harm. In other

words, if the dog actually helps with concentration more or is another distraction to a university

student’s life.

References
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Assumpcao, Alessandra, et al. "Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for University students with

depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms: a randomized controlled trial." Asia Pacific Journal of

Clinical Trials: Nervous System Diseases, vol. 4, no. 3, July-Sept. 2019, p. 51. Gale Health and

Wellness, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596382640/HWRC?u=txshracd2563&sid=bookmark-

HWRC&xid=24f0cb96. Accessed 12 Sept. 2022.

Meints, Kerstin, et al. “Can Dogs Reduce Stress Levels in School Children? Effects of Dog-Assisted

Interventions on Salivary Cortisol in Children with and without Special Educational Needs Using

Randomized Controlled Trials.” (“Can dogs reduce stress levels in school children? effects of

dog ...”) PLOS ONE, vol. 17, no. 6, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269333. 

Wood, Emily, et al. “The Feasibility of Brief Dog-Assisted Therapy on University Students Stress Levels:

The Paws Study.” Journal of Mental Health, vol. 27, no. 3, 2017, pp. 263–268.,

https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1385737. 

Jalongo, Mary Renck, and Theresa McDevitt. “Therapy Dogs in Academic Libraries: A Way to Foster

Student Engagement and Mitigate Self-Reported Stress during Finals.” Public Services Quarterly,

vol. 11, no. 4, 2015, pp. 254–269., https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2015.1084904. 

“What's the Difference between Stress and Anxiety?” American Psychological Association,

American Psychological Association, 28 Oct. 2019,

https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/anxiety-difference. 

Marks, Hedy. “Stress Symptoms: Physical Effects of Stress on the Body.” WebMD, WebMD, 19

Aug. 2021, https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms effects

of-stress-on-the-body. 
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